Wednesday, September 13th
another take
John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); Late Music Ensemble, live, England (York), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2017
Monday, September 11th
It was, I recall, a cloudless morning in Chicago, as it was in New York. I had a hearing scheduled in federal court, but then, after the second plane hit, court was cancelled. We sat in front of the TV, unable to turn away.
William Basinski, “Disintegration Loop 1.1,” 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
Photograph from September 11
by Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012; MCOTD Hall of Fame), translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw BaranczakThey jumped from the burning floors—
one, two, a few more,
higher, lower.The photograph halted them in life,
and now keeps them
above the earth toward the earth.Each is still complete,
with a particular face
and blood well hidden.There’s enough time
for hair to come loose,
for keys and coins
to fall from pockets.They’re still within the air’s reach,
within the compass of places
that have just opened.I can do only two things for them—
describe this flight
and not add a last line.
2017
Saturday, September 9th
Need a break from listening to yourself?
Kaija Saariaho (1952-), Nocturne for solo violin (1994)
Alexi Kenney (violin), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
Whatever we’re dealing with catches us
in mid-reconsideration. It’s beautiful,
my lord, just not made to be repeated,
that’s all.***
It was a moment, what can I say.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “A Breakfast Radish,” “Domani, Dopodomani” (fragments), Breezeway (2015)
2017
Thursday, September 7th
another take
Morton Feldman (1927-1986; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Rothko Chapel (1971); Markus Creed (cond.), SWR Vokalensemble (Vocal Ensemble), et al., live, Germany (Cathedral of Speyer, Schwetzinger), 2017
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Cup Decorated with the Figure of a Bathing Girl, 1887-88 (Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, through September 10th)
*****
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
What will it all be like in five years’ time
when you try to remember?—”For John Clare” (fragment)
2017
Tuesday, September 5th
soundtrack to a dream
John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); Faculty & Fellows, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
The bad news is the ship hasn’t arrived;
the good news is it hasn’t left yet.—He Who Loves And Runs Away (fragment; Planisphere, 2009)
*****
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2017
Monday, September 4th
sounds of Amsterdam
Michael Vatcher, percussion (Angels’ Share, sculpture exhibition, Herbert Nouens; Westerpark, Sculpture Park), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
John Ashbery, July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017
Alcove (Planisphere, 2009)
Is it possible that spring could be
once more approaching? We forget each time
what a mindless business it is, porous like sleep,
adrift on the horizon, refusing to take sides, “mugwump
of the final hour,” lest an agenda—horrors!—be imputed to it,
and the whole point of its being spring collapse
like a hole dug in sand. It’s breathy, though,
you have to say that for it.And should further seasons coagulate
into years, like spilled, dried paint, why,
who’s to say we weren’t provident? We indeed
looked out for others as though they mattered, and they,
catching the spirit, came home with us, spent the night
in an alcove from which their breathing could be heard clearly.
But it’s not over yet. Terrible incidents happen
daily. That’s how we get around obstacles.
2017
Saturday, September 2nd
more
They’re playing tonight.
BassDrumBone (Mark Helias, bass; Gerry Hemingway, drums; Ray Anderson, trombone), “Kinda Garnerish” (R. Anderson), live, New York, 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
though a poor-soiled
province . . .
such fireflies—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2017
Friday, September 1st
this weekend in Chicago
They’re playing, tomorrow afternoon, at the Chicago Jazz Festival.
Mary Halvorson Octet, “Away with You (No. 55),” live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
The rain is less an atmospheric condition at this point than a kind of state of being, like mourning, that can’t be forgotten unless you’re asleep.
—Matt Pearce, “On the road in Texas, where all the roads look like rivers,” Los Angeles Times, 8/29/17
2017
Wednesday, August 23rd
like nobody else
Peter Evans (trumpet), “Abyss (for Roscoe Mitchell),” 2016
2017
Tuesday, August 22nd
not for the faint-hearted
Fire! Orchestra, “Enter,” live, Copenhagen, 2014
music clip of the day 